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54
The high number of marriages and births and the
low mortality therein recorded furnish a most reliable
indication of the prosperity, as well as of the satisfactory
condition of the health of this sub-district.
Marriages.—The number of marriages (339), although
not so high as in 1881, are much higher than
in any of the preceding years.
Births—Birth-rate.—The number of births fluctuate
from year to year. They were most numerous in 1879;
in that year the number was 1125, the highest of any;
in the past year they numbered 1081. 530 males and 551
females. This number is higher by 22 than in the preceding
year, and yields a birth-rate of 28.8 per thousand.
In nearly all my annual reports the female births are
shewn to be much nore numerous than the males;
in the year under review, 1882, they number 21
more; this disparity is possibly due to the circumstance
that the male infant is more exposed to the various
accidents of childbirth. The natural increase, 537, the
result of the excess of births over deaths, is not so large
as it was during the last three years, but is equal to an
addition to the population of 14.3 per thousand per
annum.
Death-rate.—In the course of the year under report,
the total number of deaths registered was 544—males
263, females 281—and, when calculated by the mean
population, as usual in the middle of the year, will give
this sub-district a death-rate equal to 14.5 per thousand
of the total population.
In the following mortality table, which constitutes
a very lucid annual report within itself, may be seen all
the causes of death, with the sex, age, and social position
of the deceased, registered during the year 1882.